1. Field of the Invention
The subject of the invention is a care preparation, in particular a hair care preparation, which is in the form of a two-component preparation, wherein the first component includes conditioners and the second component substantially includes typical non-conditioning cosmetic vehicle substances for foundation substances, and in which the components are separate until use and are present in mixed form in variable quantities in the final product.
2. Prior Art
The hair and skin are negatively affected in terms of their physical, chemical and morphological properties by factors of various kinds. In particular, the unprotected skin and the hair on the head are exposed constantly to climatic influences, such as humidity or temperature phenomena or the rays of the sun. Cosmetic treatments such as frequent bleaching, permanent waves and dyeing, and even frequent hair washing with oil-reducing surfactants damage the hair structure. The hair becomes brittle and loses its natural sheen. The hair damaged in this way becomes electrostatically charged when brushed or combed, and the roughened surface of the hair causes matting and tangling, making the hair hard to comb and hard to smooth out.
Such changes in the hair can be temporary and can vary constantly.
Along with these exogenous influences, which have a major influence on the condition of the skin and hair, the individual nature of the skin and hair also plays a very decisive role in their proper care and in the choice of a care preparation to be used for them. In different human populations, the hair in particular, because of its structure, also varies.
Another factor is that natural aging causes a progressive alteration in the nature of the skin and hair.
Because of the differences in the nature of the hair and skin, which can be major even between people in the same population group or even different individuals, individualized skin and hair care cannot be done with the care preparations available so far. In that case, to make this possible, many ready-to-use care preparations with different quantities of care preparation additives would have to be furnished, which is impracticable.
Many demands are made of hair care preparations. They should improve the manageability, feel, elasticity, sheen and volume while at the same time burdening the hair as little as possible. The term "burdening the hair" is understood to be the deposit of substances on the hair that is perceptible to and can be felt by the user of a hair treatment preparation and that makes the user feel her hair is not clean. The care preparations up to now cannot provide satisfaction in terms of meeting the demands for an individualized treatment effect, so there is an unmet need in this respect.
So far, it has been possible to improve negative hair conditions using conventional hair therapy preparations. Hair therapy preparations with a treatment effect and that improve manageability are therefore of major importance in modern hair care. Hair therapy preparations are typically in the form of emulsions or suspensions, which include monoalcohols or fatty alcohols, waxes, oils, or lipids; anionic, amphoteric, nonionic or cationic surfactants or emulsifiers. Emulsifiers, especially cationic emulsifiers, contribute substantially to the treatment effect.
However, a disadvantage of such hair care preparations is that the treatment effect is closely related to the emulsion properties. This means that there are narrow limits to the quantity of cationic surfactants to be used as care preparations. With a high concentration, advantageous emulsion properties would indeed be attainable, but would engender deleterious effects on the skin and hair. Especially with undamaged hair, an excessively strong treatment effect can ensue, which expresses itself in severe burdening of the hair, both when wet and when dry. If the treatment is too strong, the reverse effect on the hair can even ensue, where after the treatment, the hair is dull and even harder to comb than before.
Although lower concentrations of cationic surfactants cause no skin damage, they do not allow making usable emulsions, either, and provide only an unsatisfying treatment effect.
In the known hair care preparations, the treatment effect can accordingly be established only inadequately, because otherwise such emulsion properties as stability, viscosity and a creamy feel would be adversely affected.
Furthermore, cationic emulsifiers have the additional disadvantages that they irritate mucous membranes and are either not biodegradable or only poorly biodegradable.
Besides hair care preparations with cationic emulsifiers, those in the form of anionic hair care emulsions are also known. However, these hair care preparations have the disadvantage of an inadequate treatment effect, which cannot be improved substantially by further additions of amphoteric or nonionic surfactants, for instance.
In European Patent 0 662 816, for instance, a hair care preparation is described that includes cationic, amphoteric and nonionic polymers, alkylpolyglycosides and fatty alcohols and is intended for use in cleaning and caring for human hair.
Conventional cosmetic preparations can also be found in Chemical Abstracts 119-55722t or are described in European Patent Disclosures EP-A 0 728 460, EP-A 0 719 539, EP-A 0 705 593, and EP-A 0 641 557, and U. S. Pat. Nos. 5,118,507 and 5,250,289. In these and other cases, conditioners and vehicle substances are present together in mixture form. Such cosmetic care preparations, however, are not suited to attaining the object of the present invention.